Mumbai Blasts: Blood on Indian Mujahideen's hands?

Mumbai, Jul 14: With the Mumbai Blasts ripping across the heavily populated areas of Dadar, Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House, the needle of suspicion is increasingly falling on the Indian Mujahideen, the home-grown terror network that consists of factions of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) as well.

With the Home Minister pointing fingers at all terror groups without singling out any particular group, taking into consideration the nature of the attack and the material used in the blasts. The use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and the serial nature of the blasts seem to give enough evidence to the role of the Indian Mujahideen in the terror attack that saw the death of 18 people and 131 injured. [Read: What is IED?]

The fact that there were no intelligence inputs, according to a statement by the Home Minister P Chidambaram and his comment that the terrorists might have operated secretly with less communication, might have led to the group not getting caught in the intelligence radar. Chidambaram stated in his press meet that all terror groups who are hostile to India will be placed as possible suspects in the deadly attacks.

There are reports that the probe on the blast cases in Pune, Delhi and Varanasi in 2010 that has been unresolved might have led to the IM regrouping and wreaking havoc in the country. Police sources have also backed the claim that the IM could be behind the attacks especially after the Ahmedabad police busted an entire module in 2008.

On the pattern of the attacks that struck on Jul 13, intelligence agencies are also looking into the '13' angle with regards of the Pune German Bakery that occurred on Feb 13 and the Jaipur serial bomb blasts that took place in May 13, 2008 as well as others that coincidentally occurred on the same 13th.

A police officer was quoted as saying, “The German Bakery blast in Pune was the first indication that the terror outfit is regrouping and this time they have again openly challenged us." Even as the police was successful in nabbing IM operatives predominantly in the middle and lower ranks, the senior leaders are still on the run like Abdul Subbhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, who is believed to be the mastermind of the Ahmedabad blasts.

The Bhatkal brothers are understood to be funding the IM operatives from Pakistan. A source revealed, “These senior rank militants remain engaged in brainwashing and recruiting youngsters in the terror outfit to execute their plans." Most of the IM recruits were from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. This move was considered especially harmful to Gujarat due to certain groups who want to avenge the Godhra riots.